Category: Book Reviews

‘Under the Bridge’: The Hierarchy of Translational Labor and Two Poetry Collections

Via Arabic Literature (in English) BY MLYNXQUALEY on OCTOBER 25, 2017 • ( 0 ) M. Lynx Qualey considers the many hands at work behind two collections of Arabic poetry in translation in this review that originally appeared in The Poetry Review, reprinted here with permission: Al-Saddiq al-Raddi, Monkey at the Window, trans. Sarah Maguire and Mark Ford Adnan al-Sayegh, Pages from the Biography of an Exile, trans. Stephen Watts and Marga … Read more ‘Under the Bridge’: The Hierarchy of Translational Labor and Two Poetry Collections

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Reading the NYTBR on Bishop & Lowell

[FB’d this in dismay this morning; but seems worthwhile to keep track of on my blog. It concerns a review of Elizabeth Bishop, A Miracle for Breakfast by Megan Marshall, but mainly Patricia Bosworth’s review of ROBERT LOWELL, SETTING THE RIVER ON FIRE A Study of Genius, Mania, and Character By Kay Redfield Jamison.] So, trying to relax on a windy & cold Sunday morning, I turn to the just-delivered paper New York Times, … Read more Reading the NYTBR on Bishop & Lowell

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Reading List 2016

I was asked to write this piece in late December for the January issue of the Harriet blog The Reading List, a feature of Poetry magazine’s Editors’ Blog, as I had Celan prose translations in the January issue: No matter what else has gone wrong with this year (and much did, obviously, & I won’t dwell on it!), it is going out with a bang: the mailman just handed me today, Tuesday, … Read more Reading List 2016

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2015 in Algerian Literature: Five to Watch

via Arabic Literature (in English) &Y MLYNXQUALEY on DECEMBER 25, 2015 • ( 0 ) Algerian literature was celebrated regionally and globally in 2015. But beyond the surface of the big names — the Kamel Daouds, Boualem Sansals and Yasmina Khadras — what else was going on? Nadia Ghanem looks back: By Nadia Ghanem Algerian literature this year has been marked by familiar names within and outside our borders. … Read more 2015 in Algerian Literature: Five to Watch

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Celan, Peyrafitte, Howe, Meyer.

With the serialization of The Malady of Islam taking up all weekdays (& will do for another couple of weeks), I’ll use Saturday’s post to list other items/events of interest. 1) A Review of Breathturn into Timestead in The Arts Fuse: Fuse Poetry Review: “Breathturn into Timestead” — A Magnificent Guide to the Enigmatic Poetry of Paul Celan Feb 25 2015  Once you have wrestled with Paul Celan, not against but … Read more Celan, Peyrafitte, Howe, Meyer.

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Some Favorite Reads of 2013

I’m a bit late on this, & certainly haven’t read all of the books that came into my house last year, as it sometime takes me a long time to go through the six-foot long side-shelf on the desk where the unreads winter & summer until they find their place on the wall shelves. Hors Concours: Nicole Peyrafitte. Bi-Valve — Vulvic Space | Vulvic Knowledge. Stockport Flats Press. 1) Jerome Rothenberg, … Read more Some Favorite Reads of 2013

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Captain Poetry’s Sucker Punch

I don’t like Big Beach Novels for the summer, as novels invariably wind up boring me, but I do enjoy having a Big Booke of something-or-other to schlepp around from airport lounge to train station to rental car office — & to whatever home or motel or inn I’ll rest my bones reading, reading, reading. Happy to report that I most likely have found that book for this summer: Kenneth Warren’s … Read more Captain Poetry’s Sucker Punch

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Peter Riley on Oystercatchers

Lovely review by Peter Riley of an excellent English poetry press in the Fortnightly Review. Opening paras below, read the whole thing here: Peter Hughes and Oystercatcher Press. By Peter Riley. Peter Hughes. THE LATEST ISSUES from Oystercatcher Press1 have arrived. They are Cloud Breaking Sun by John James and When blue light falls 32 by Carol Watts.  Oystercatcher is a small press run by the poet Peter Hughes, and his particular way of finding … Read more Peter Riley on Oystercatchers

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Weekend Reading: Rexroth, Césaire & Collage

With the summer all but gone, the Maghrebi anthology all but done, the first week of teaching behind me, & a long weekend ahead, there may even be time to get some leisurely reading done. Returning to Brooklyn after 3 months on the road, I found a trove of books that had arrived or that I hadn’t gotten to in the spring. Below, a few of these (more over … Read more Weekend Reading: Rexroth, Césaire & Collage

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On my left…

… the great pile of unread or half read books keeps accumulating, mutating, collapsing, merging, diminishing (ever so slightly), but mainly growing by leaps and bounds. The idea was of course to review them here on NOMADICS, but books are patient while events vent their urgencies, real or imagined. And thus I rarely get around to review books (not an activity I have ever taken vast pleasure in, except … Read more On my left…

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